


Not My Best Landing

by geeky__chick



Series: One More Resurrection [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Fix It Fic, Loki and Valkyrie still suck at feelings, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Valki - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 08:26:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14637960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geeky__chick/pseuds/geeky__chick
Summary: With their vessel crippled, Loki and Valkyrie brace for a crash landing as Thor awaits the arrival of his people.





	Not My Best Landing

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to One More Resurrection, so it's best to read that one first.
> 
> There will be one more part following this.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading!

The first thought he had when the warning klaxons started was that they were all going to get a little too used to the sound. They were not as jarring as the first few times they rang out, though several civilians nearby looked up with fear sliding across their faces.

For his part, the prince of Asgard merely set his fork down and pushed away from the too full table. He might not have investigated, since the Valkyrie remained at the helm, but any reason to refuse the short rations they were forced to eat seemed enough to excuse himself.

The ship rocked precariously as he reached the doors, the groan of twisting metal sending a sharp spike of the fear he’d witnessed on others down his spine.

“Shit.” Loki slammed his hand into the door mechanism, sliding through the moment there was enough room for his body.

He darted around the people piled into the Grandmaster’s old pleasure vessel, not bothering to apologize for stepping on toes as he did so. Two days ago, when he and the Valkyrie rejoined the escape fleet, they found two of the pods disabled by an ion storm. With no other option, they filled the _Commodore_ with as many bodies as they could for the remaining journey to Earth.

The door to the cockpit was closed as he reached it, the ship rocking once more. Loki gripped the doorjamb as their vessel seemed to pitch to one side, shoving several of their weaker companions sliding across the corridor.

Truly concerned now, Loki managed to open the cockpit door, pulling his body far enough through it to grip the co-pilot’s seat.

Brunnhilde occupied the pilot’s chair, her face a mask of concentration as she gripped the steering column with both hands. Loki noted, with no small amount of despair, that the warrior had braced both of her feet on the console, giving her more torque to hold the ship steady.

“Do I even want to ask?” Loki questioned as he slid his gaze from his lover to the windscreen.

Brunnhilde did not deign to answer.

“This is the Asgardian Refugee Fleet. We are in distress and are being forced to crash land on your planet. Again, this is a refugee fleet, we are unarmed.”

Loki shook his head, admiring that even when the universe seemed to be halved, that the Titan had achieved his goal, things continued to turn to shit under his hands without warning.

“Engage the intership comms.” Loki obeyed, only because he feared what might happen if she so much as moved a finger from the steering column.

“Asgard!” Brunnhilde shouted. “Land your escape pods as close together as you can. The _Commodore_ will land last. Good luck and Allfathers be with you.”

“Are we landing, my dear?” Loki asked, turning off the ship’s communications. “Or are we crashing?”

Brunnhilde cut her dark gaze to him, the clench of her jaw giving away the effort she expended keeping the ship straight.

“The last meteor shower damaged our inertial dampener and the landing gear.” She said quickly. “I can’t slow down and I can’t land. The back half of this thing is too heavy, I can’t get the nose down.”

“Excellent.” Loki sighed. He closed his eyes, drawing in the magic he learned at his mother’s knee. He might not be able to cover them all as one, but with a concentration of his power, he covered the back half of the ship with a protection spell.

His companion smiled from where she sat, a true smile of thanks. Loki inclined his head to her, looking back to the windscreen as Earth barreled toward them.

“I found the king, we’re landing in close proximity.”

“Any response from the ground?”

“No.” Hilde grunted, her forearms flexing once more as she adjusted her grip on the column. “But we can’t stop.”

Loki nodded, leaning forward in his seat to watch as the first of the escape pods entered the atmosphere. He let the relief zing through him when they were not destroyed outright, their hulls glowing red as they plummeted toward Earth.

“Loki.” Hilde barked his name as the _Commodore_ breached the outermost layer of atmosphere. “You need to get in the back.”

“ _We_ need to.” Loki corrected.

“One of us has to steer, Lackey.”

Loki exhaled sharply, shifting in his seat to get comfortable.

“Then we’ll wait until the last possible moment.”

“You’re the Prince-“

“I am not leaving you up here.” Loki shot back without looking at her. “At the last moment.”

The Valkyrie beside him did not respond. The ship pitched forward precariously. Startled screams sounded from the back of the ship. Loki’s hands gripped the armrest. All they had done, all the people of Asgard had suffered, Loki hoped beyond hope that they would find refuge here, even if he did not.

His gaze cut again to the Valkyrie as the ground appeared far below. Sandpaper seemed to have replaced his tongue as he watched the Earth thrusting into the sky below him. Before this moment, only the prospect of facing his brother after watching him die yet again lingered on his awareness. Now, he wondered if his source of information had been wrong and he would die again anyway.

Flame erupted around the windscreen, their angle more perilous by the second. Loki twitched a hand at Brunnhilde, pulling apart the harness keeping her in the chair. His own he unbuckled with his fingers, perching on the edge of the chair to reach the cockpit door.

Prepared, Loki exhaled sharply, hauling his body out of the seat against the gravitational forces trying to keep him pinned.

“Hilde.”

She did not respond. Loki wondered if she even had the ability, with all her might focused on keeping their ship from a flat spin that would churn them all into paste.

“Hilde. Now.” Loki demanded, his grip on the doorway tightening.

Still, the Valkyrie did not reply.

He could see the landscape of the Earth below, the broad river, rolling plains, and thick forest. There appeared to be no city, no civilization. With no time to alter course, Loki focused on the woman still gripping the steering column.

“Brunnhilde!” He reached out, grasping at her shoulder as she remained in her chair.

A beat later, when he could see the species of tree in the forest below, Brunnhilde burst into motion. She released the column, sending the ship into an immediate flat spin. Her body barreled into Loki’s, his arms pulling her close as they ducked beyond the cockpit into the shield of Loki’s magic. The landed in a tangle of limbs on the floor of the corridor, Loki shouting for all of their frightened people to brace for impact.

When it came, Loki was still clutching Brunnhilde to his chest.

~**~

Standing in the palace of the Wakandan king, Thor stared over the rolling fields into the horizon. In the wake of the Mad Titan’s dream made reality, even Earth’s Mightiest Heroes were at a loss. So many were unaccounted for, turned to dust with the snap of massive fingers.

They had all avoided sleep, all of them wondering what to do. For the first time in the years he had known him, even Captain Rogers appeared at a loss.

For the first time since the attack on Asgard began, Thor had no immediate goal. His people, what remained of them, were out in the vastness of space with the Valkyrie alone to lead them. He hoped they found their way to Earth, so much so that he warned the young Queen to expect the fleet of escapees to land in his proximity.

When he offered to remove himself, and the compliment of refugees by proxy, to another location, Queen Shuri simply replied that was not necessary. Wakanda, she said, had opened its borders to the world, to those in need. The Asgardians were certainly in need.

So, with nothing else to take his attention, Thor waited.

He braced his hands on the sculpted stone of the balcony’s rail, looking up into the sky as though he might see the pods as they arrived. With nothing remaining of his family, all Thor had was what was left of his people.

Thanos had wiped out half of the universe. Only a quarter of Asgard’s compliment had survived Hela, space, and the Titan.

His mechanical eye showed the breach a moment before the barrier surrounding the Wakandan capital lit with blue. Thor frowned, summoning Stormbreaker from his rooms behind him, launching his body from the balcony. When Queen Shuri offered his people a home, Thor had sworn an oath to help protect her kingdom. If they came under attack again, Thor would wage war to protect the small kingdom.

He flew toward the barrier, finding the palace guard and the Border Tribe were already en-route to the same location. By the time he landed, Rogers and Natasha were pulling up with the Dora Milaje, hopping from a hovercraft with ease. Thor nodded to his friends, turning his mortal and mechanical eyes to the sky.

“We received a distress call.” General Okoye said as she stood beside the Asgardian king. “We believe your people have arrived.”

As though to punctuate her words, the first escape pod landed with an earth-shaking _thud_ into the grassy plain beyond the barrier. In quick succession, two more landed. Then another five. They were spread over the plain, leaving massive indentations in the land as they did. Smoke wafted into the air from the superheated metal.

Twenty pods and the _Commodore_ had rushed from the _Frigga_ when Thanos arrived. Thor counted only fifteen now.

Where was the Valkyrie’s ship?

Thor kept his eyes above as the Queen ordered an opening in the barrier. The hover-fleet zoomed in behind them, bearing what looked to be blankets and food, medical supplies. His heart beat a frantic tattoo against his breast as he searched the sky for the vessel that bore his friends to Asgard.

“Where is she?”

It was Banner who stood beside him, his eyes trained on the sky above. Thor cleared his throat.

“I don’t know.”

“You sent her in the orgy ship, right?” Banner pressed. “I mean, she’s supposed to be leading them. Where the hell is she?”

The fear in Banner’s voice only made Thor’s heart plummet to his feet. He’d taken such a risk, stuffing her into the smaller vessel and ordering her to see to the evacuation.  Brunnhilde hadn’t taken the order easily, not until the Hulk insisted that his ‘Angry Girl’ go, he would see Thor and ‘Puny God’.  The friend Hulk had made held a special place in Banner’s heart. If something had happened to her…

Those worries melted away a moment later, replaced by horror. The _Commodore_ came into view, closer to the barrier than the other ships…and in a dangerously flat spin.

“Oh. No.”

Banner’s whisper had them rushing to the barrier. Thor could see as they rushed toward the landing field that the ship was badly damaged. The weight was off, the spin certain to cause more damage to the people aboard.

It crashed without even attempting to slow, the impact thrice that of the braking escape pods as they met Wakandan earth. Thor lifted his axe, flying through the field with the hovercraft trailing behind him. Thor’s heart hammered mightily within his breast as he reached the ship.

Debris covered an area at least a quarter mile in radius, each piece smoking hot and twisted. The _Commodore_ had lost its very shape, the integrity of the hull splintered down the center. As he landed in front of the mess of metal, Thor wondered if there was any way anyone aboard might have survived the crash.

He lifted his axe to hack his way into the belly of the vessel, but the hydraulic door hissed open before he could.

A familiar pair of legs kicked the door forty feet from the crash site before an all-too-familiar form stepped out of the ship.

“Hilde.”

“Not my best landing, I grant you, but it got the job done.” The Valkyrie was grinning.

Thor beamed at her battered body as she stood before the ship. Blood trickled down her head, a gash had taken her left leg, but she was alive. Moving toward her, Thor intended to wrap her into his arms when another figure pulled itself out of the ship.

“Oh, my God.”

It was Banner who spoke, but Thor took a step back in shock.

Loki stood behind Brunnhilde, his hands steadying her as she swayed. His brother appeared to be as worse for wear as the woman before him, but he was breathing.

Astonished, Thor merely gaped at his brother, doing a particularly excellent impression of a fish out of water.

“Hello, Brother.”

At his voice, Thor took two steps and wrapped his brother into his arms. Brunnhilde chuckled a beat before she fell to her knees, Banner rushing to her side immediately. People had begun to file out of the ship, the majority of their compliment appearing unharmed.

Clutching his brother to his chest, Thor allowed tears to slide down his cheeks. Loki held on just as tightly, just as _fiercely_.

“I promised you,” Loki said quietly. “I told you the sun would shine on us again.”

“You did,” Thor laughed, and cried. “You did.”

~~**~~

With the might of Asgardians to aid them, the Wakandans had set up a refugee camp in hours. Tents of every sort littered the field where the pods had crashed, the scrap lugged away to make room. His kingdom returned to him, King Thor jumped in with both hands to ensure the comfort of his people, to ensure the kingdom they borrowed as a temporary home knew of their gratitude.

Sometime during the building, Loki had been called away with his brother, to brief the heroes that met Thanos on the battlefield.

It was that battlefield that drew Brunnhilde’s attention to it.

She stood where the barrier met the expanse of plains beyond, where the armies had met in glorious battle. The echo of death _lingered_ here, a living thing in the veins of Valhalla’s minion. The Valkyrie closed her eyes, watching the battle unfold behind the closed lids. Valor resonated through the very earth beneath her feet, glory and honor and blood melded in her senses, singing in her veins. Battle, glorious, deadly battle.

When, at last, she reined in her power, Hilde felt another presence behind her. She turned her head, glancing over her shoulder at the prince whom waited patiently for her communion to finish.

“You glow.” Loki said in a quiet tone, as though he hadn’t wanted to disturb the ghosts of his battle.

“I glow?” Brunnhilde lifted a brow. “What kind of thing is that to say?”

To his credit, Loki merely chuckled. “I haven’t seen you read a field before, though I’ve read about it. You glow, very faintly, with power.”

Brunnhilde glanced beyond the barrier again, shrugging one shoulder.

“It is where I am most powerful.” She concluded. “Where I am at my most deadly.”

His grin was wicked, when she looked behind her again, as though the idea of her being more deadly appealed to him. Brunnhilde rolled her eyes toward the heavens, shaking her head at his ridiculousness, no matter how pleasure slid down her spine.

“I don’t recall that certain gift on the Bifrost.” He had moved to stand behind her, his hands gliding across her middle to hold her close.

“I fought the undead, then, there is little glory available for them.”

“Ah.” Loki replied with understanding. “And what do you read here, my dear?”

Brunnhilde shook her head, turning in her lover’s arms. She lifted her own to drape them over his shoulders, leaning up until they were nose to nose.

“The better question is, why would you not leave me in the cockpit alone?”

Something that reminded her of armor slid into the eyes of the god before her, as though he did not want to show her what lay beneath. Hilde clucked her tongue, shaking her head when she realized he meant to lie to her.

“No.” Hilde said, covering his mouth with her hand. “Don’t answer that with a lie. Leave it unsaid, if you must, but do not lie to me.”

“Brunnhilde,” Loki whispered her name, anguish sliding over his handsome features. “You know why.”

She kept his gaze for several seconds before nodding.

She knew.

Of course, she knew.


End file.
